Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Frank O'Rourke for proposing this Bill. He has done much work in engaging with the various sectors affected by this issue. I looked back over the work of the last Oireachtas to find that the only Bill to pass all Stages in the Seanad was the Public Services and Procurement (Social Value) Bill 2015, which Senator Marc MacSharry co-sponsored. It was from that Bill that we decided to proceed with this Bill. In the intervening period, however, we have not made much progress, if any. That is a charge I would lay at the door of successive Governments. It is not a political charge against the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, or this Government but we have not done as well as our European colleagues do in this area, and the facts bear this out. Back in 2009, when I was Vice Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, the former Chairman, Bernard Allen, and I produced a report of the committee that compared procurement in Ireland and the number of contracts that stayed within the Irish State with the position in other European countries, and we were the second worst in Europe after Cyprus.

Some €12 billion a year of goods and services are procured by the Irish State. What we are talking about is levelling the playing pitch. Deputy Frank O'Rourke has said we are open to changes, amendments and additions to the Bill, which is as it should be. To have the Government accept the Bill on Second State would send a very clear message to indigenous businesses and the SME sector, in particular, that the Government and the Oireachtas are serious about having a level playing pitch. We are not talking about protectionism, Irish-only or anything like that. This is fully compliant with EU rules but it will give the Government a chance to be prescriptive about the guidelines. What it does is set down the social value. It will make sure that those who are tendering or offering a tender have to take into account when assessing those tenders the value of the contract to the area in which it is tendered, to that sector of society and the businesses involved.

Deputy Frank O'Rourke mentioned the situation in regard to the libraries contract. The four Dublin local authorities bundled the tenders, which meant that practically no Irish companies could even qualify to tender, and those that did were at a massive disadvantage as they were already taken out of the game. Those contracts are gone and over 50 jobs have been lost. I could give numerous examples like this. It happened in the printing sector, where Revenue procured printing in Switzerland and the Department of Education and Skills had printing done in Spain. It is not as if we do not have the right quality available here. This Bill will not stop that happening but what it will do is make sure that those in Government services and local authority services have to seriously look at how they put the tender offer together, and how they assess it when it comes back in.

I have spoken to certain sectors within the Government. More recently, in fact, two days before Christmas, as Deputy Frank O'Rourke did, I spoke to the education procurement service and told the officials how disappointed I was in the decision that they took, but there is no recourse. The appeal is only back to them. That is another issue Deputy Eoghan Murphy, as Minister of State, should look at. Someone, who went in for that contract and is not awarded it, can appeal it but it is appealed back to those who made the decision in the first instance. That is ridiculous. We can do a lot better.

We should do a lot better. The State spends €12 billion to €14 billion a year on goods and services. We do not support Irish businesses as others, such as the French, the Scots and the Welsh, do. Newer assemblies and governments than ours do much better that we do.

We have the expertise. No doubt we are building on the expertise in the OGP and procurement is not seen as something of an add-on. By accepting this Bill on Second Stage and expediting it to Committee and Remaining Stages after we have taken amendments on board, we will show that the Oireachtas is serious about what it is doing. I hope the Government accepts it.

I commend Deputy Frank O'Rourke for the work and engagement that he has had with all the various sectors on this. People are looking for us to do something. Now is the opportunity to do it. Let us agree it together, move this on at Second Stage and expedite it in the next eight or ten weeks, subject of course to the Minister of State remaining in his post if he is not elevated further. Either way, we would have a lot of confidence in the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy.

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